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November 27, 2006
Traffic Tidbit: "sign of economic health"
Here's a "deja screw," buried at the end of a story on development in New Rochelle from this Sunday's NY Times "Living In" column ("Buildings Grow Taller; Reactions Get Louder"):
Traffic often snarls on main roads, although [Craig] King, the commissioner, cited a study by AKRF Inc., a White Plains consulting firm, suggesting that some congestion was natural in a downtown and even a sign of economic health.
Atlantic Yards news junkies will know that AKRF is the firm that worked on the Atlantic Yards Environmental Impact Statement. AKRF has consistently garnered criticism for its developer-friendly conclusions. Even Atlantic Yards supporter and consultant Richard Lipsky charged recently that "the AKRF folks are simply rationalizing their job, which is to make a great deal of money by minimizing impacts and conducting dishonest research." But, we digress....
StreetsBlog readers and transportation advocates will recall NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg's declaration of the benefits of traffic, during a speech this past August ("Mayor Bloomberg Says NYC Traffic Congestion is Good"):
"We like traffic, it means economic activity, it means people coming here."
You gotta love how "traffic is a good sign" has become the mantra of policy consultants who have the ear of local mayors.
That explains the City's lack of concern over current traffic and transportation problems, never mind the mindboggling deafness to the impacts on traffic from an arena and 16 highrise towers (actually, more like 19 highrises, if you include the Atlantic Center towers), located around one of the most congested intersections in Brooklyn.
Last week, The NY Times reported that the Partnership for New York City is about to release a study which concludes that traffic congestion costs the city an estimated "$12 billion to $15 billion a year." That would seem to contradict AKRF's traffic dogma, which is just an excuse for cities to develop at will and ignore the related traffic and transportation challenges.
Posted by lumi at November 27, 2006 11:44 AM